Friday, March 26, 2010

Early afternoon today, 25th of March, a 6.2-magnitude earthquake hit our country, Philippines. I was in the office rendering OT (overtime) when that incident happened.
At first, I thought I was just a little dizzy and didn’t really pay much attention to it. Coz I didn’t know that it was already an earthquake. I had my headset on that time and I was listening to my mp3 songs a bit loud, so I couldn’t really hear that there was already a little commotion going on in the office regarding incident.

Then, when the shaking in the building gets a little stronger that’s when I decided to asked my officemate near me “if it’s actually an earthquake” and she answered “Yes it is!”, and I was like “Oh, My God! Then I made a sign of the cross”. I got really scared coz it lasted for about half a minute and I could really feel the building and my body shaking. Then when, the earthquake had finally stop, the first thing that came in to my mind was to text my loved ones — my parents, my boyfriend and his family — asking if they felt it and telling them to just take care. I also texted my “barkadas” (friends) the same thing.

The earthquake according to news, had initially reported by the PHILVOCS (Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology), having a 6.2 magnitude but then later on lowered it to 6.0, after receiving more field data.

And also according to the PHILVOCS, the details of the intensity of earthquakes are listed below:

Intensity V

Looc

Lubang Island in Mindoro Occidental

Intensity IV

Quezon City

Mandaluyong City

Makati City

Clark, Pampanga

Intensity II

Bagac

Bataan

Canlubang, Laguna

According to PHILVOCS:

After shock is expected, although the quake is not expected to generate tsunamis because “It was not too strong.”

Based to a separate report from the USGS (United States Geological Survey), the quake, which occurred 1:29 P.M., measured 6.1-magnitude and with an epicenter at “Lubang Island, Mindoro Occidental”. The epicenter had a depth of 72.4 kilometers.

Although the building shaking in Manila lasted for about 30 seconds which sends frightened employees out into the street, still thank God, coz there were actually no immediate reports of damage or casualties and also no tsunami alert was issued.

Let’s us all pray that it won’t happened again and no more tragedy to happen again, coz it was really scary especially thinking of the past incidents that happened in other countries such as Haiti and Chile.